Brigg Fair

click photo to enlarge
"It was on the fifth of August, the weather fine and fair,
Unto Brigg Fair I did repair, for love I was inclined..."
from the folk song, Brigg Fair (traditional)

One of my favourite pieces of music is Brigg Fair: An English Rhapsody by the English composer, Frederick Delius (1862-1934). It is an orchestral piece based on the Lincolnshire folk song that Percy Grainger heard (and recorded) from Joseph Taylor, a Lincolnshire singer. Grainger introduced the piece to Delius who turned it into a work that remains one of his best loved compositions.

As luck would have it we passed through Brigg yesterday, the fourth of August, and with the words of the song in mind we looked around for evidence of the fair. There was nothing that suggested it was on apart from a group of travellers with their horses and caravans. I took today's photograph of a man as he exercised his trotting horse on a street near a large car park. I guessed that this gathering might have had something to do with the fair, but since there was nothing else to indicate the it I resolved to find out more when we got home.

It seems that the fair is held on the first Saturday of August. That was the second of the month this year and so we had missed it. Apparently it is something of a social event and gathering of travellers for horse trading in much the same way that happens at Appleby in Westmorland. The fair has a long history - over 800 years - and today it is less formal and smaller than it would have been when Joseph Taylor was singing in the local musical festival. Next year, perhaps, we'll go on the right day.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 116mm (174mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f9
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO:280
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Out to pasture

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In my working life I had an interesting but demanding job that made ever more claims upon my time as I progressed up the hierarchy. Consequently, when I decided I would retire one of the major attractions of ceasing regular, paid work was that all that time would be returned to me to do with as I pleased. And so it proved. I've never been a person who has been unable to fill their time, I've never complained of being bored, and I've always had things to do. Retirement gave me the opportunity to pursue my interests, things that formerly I'd dipped in and out of or had neglected.

However, to my surprise I found that complete release from the pressures associated with paid work didn't quite suit me. The fact is I like having to deliver within a specified  time-frame and having a full and busy life. Consequently I have expanded what one of my sons calls the "community activism" side of my life because it offers me those pressures that I missed. But, one of the lessons you learn in life is that upsides often have, somewhere or other, downsides. In this instance the downside is the reduction in time available to devote to photography and this blog in particular. In the past circumstance has caused me to cease posting or reduce my frequency, and I've reached that point again. I'm not stopping, but I won't be maintaining my alternate days schedule.

I chose the title of today's post to fit in with what I have to say in the post, not that I particularly feel "out to pasture", but that is one of the ways that retirement is sometimes characterised. I saw these horses as I drove past them. I walked back to get these photographs showing them fringed by light from the lowish sun.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 38mm (57mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Working with animals and children

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I've never been tempted by the lure of stage or screen, the bright lights, the red carpet or the adulation of fans. Just as well really because I'd be useless at it all.

In fact the only time I've ever appeared in the media - press, radio or TV (web too I suppose apart from links with photography and architecture) is in connection with a relatively minor news story. That happened to me last week when I did a regional TV interview and was once again reminded of the tedium of doing several "takes" to get a few seconds of footage. I've done that sort of thing before in connection with my job and when campaigning, but not for a few years. Last week reminded me of the unreality of what passes for real.

One of the sayings that actors are known for is, "never work with children or animals". It's a quote that's often attributed to W.C. Fields and it sounds like the sort of thing he would say. I was reminded of it this afternoon when I was photographing a horse. I'd been chatting with a couple of friends and prevailed on them to let me take a few shots of one of their horses because my stock of shots for the blog was running low. Why did the quote come to mind? Well, the horse in question was even less co-operative as a photographic subject than my grand-daughter. It would not stay still, and when it remained in one place it moved its head about. I made a good collection of blurred shots. Very much as I often do with my grand-daughter in fact! However, eventually I got a couple that looked like they might work. I took the opportunity to further test the Aperture Priority mode of the RX100 and took this shot in the dark of the stable. It did a fair job. I'd dialled in some negative EV to give a little "mood" to the shot and for this image I've done some "burning" of the edges to give something of a vignette.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18.5mm (50mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 2000
Exposure Compensation:  -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Morning habits and blog visitors

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I'm a creature of habit. Eating breakfast reading The Guardian newspaper is my start to the day, every day except one. On Sunday I don't get a newspaper because none of the offerings appeal to me. I used to buy The Observer (the world's oldest Sunday newspaper), but it became a bit too "lifestyle" for my tastes, so now on Sundays I dip into the bits of the more extensive Saturday edition of the Guardian that I didn't read the previous day. But, as well as newspapers and breakfast I often have a quick look at the blog. I've done this a little more recently now that I'm using a mixture of Blogger's "Stats" and Google Analytics. It's interesting to see where people come from, what they look at, what search phrases they use, etc.

The other day I used the combined data from the two packages to look at which countries visitors are coming from. The results are, I think, interesting, and pose a few questions. Here's a summary after a couple of months use of this pair of hit counters. So far I've had people from 92 countries/territories. The top ten countries for visitors are: UK (55%), USA (29%), Australia (5%), Canada (4%), India (2%), Germany (2%) - these six countries account for 97% of hits - then comes the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy and France Those four countries plus the other 82 account for a total of 3%. Clearly, as a UK-based blog, you'd expect the largest percentage of visitors to be from the UK. And the USA, a big, affluent country with a large anglophone population might be expected to provide the second highest total of hits. But the remaining eight of the "top ten" seem to be a mixture of countries that have a high proportion of first or second language English-speakers, or have a high population, or are near European neighbours to the UK. This is largely true also of the three countries that sometimes nudge their way into the top ten - Ireland, Belgium and Poland. Unsurprisingly there are no visitors from most central and west African countries, and some of the Gulf States are absent too. The most surprising (or perhaps not) statistic - thus far there hasn't been a single visit from the People's Republic of China, the world's most populous nation.

Today's photograph was taken on a morning when I was away from home, so I had no newspaper over breakfast, and no computer distractions. However, I did have a post-repast stroll in Fineshade Wood and managed to get this contre jour shot of horse riders and a dog as they disappeared up the forest track ahead of us.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Life Guard Cavalryman

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Somewhere in the top ten photographs that are taken by visitors to London, sitting alongside the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, a "bobby", and a red double-decker bus is one of the Household Cavalry outside the barracks at Whitehall. There are always at least two soldiers in ceremonial dress there, one on foot and the other mounted: sometimes there are more. In summer they display their metal breastplates and a lighter uniform, whilst winter brings the greatcoats. Passing through that area the other day I took my turn with the tourists thronging the guardsmen and got this photograph. It shows a member of the Life Guards, one of the two Household Cavalry regiments who act as the Queen's bodyguards, and (with the Blues & Royals) are the senior regiments of the British Army, their origins dating back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Today the soldiers of this corps provide the army with three squadrons, one for mounted ceremonial duties, and two reconnaissance squadrons using Scimitar, Panther and Jackal armoured vehicles.

I've often thought that the ceremonial duties of such regiments must be a welcome break from the hazards of Iraq or Afghanistan. And yet, as I watched person after person standing next to the guardsmen to have their photographs taken, and child after child being lifted by their parents to pat the nose of the uncomplaining horse, it occurred to me that it requires training of a different sort (for man and beast!) to impassively endure the non-stop attention of the visiting hordes. And, with that thought in mind, I quickly composed my shot - at a distance - and departed.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm (80mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On